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No one could identify the lone gunman who entered central Ohio restaurants after closing time,
ordered employees to the floor and forced managers to open their safes during a five-month crime
spree last year.

The robber wore a mask, gloves and bulky clothing.

When Columbus police captured James H. Smith in a chase on July 12, 2012, investigators began
trying to link him to nearly 20 similar crimes.

A Franklin County jury convicted Smith yesterday of committing 12 of the robberies after a
weeklong trial. The jurors deliberated for parts of two days before finding him guilty on 12 counts
of aggravated robbery, plus 32 counts of kidnapping for holding the employees at gunpoint.

Smith, 32, of the North Side, faces a maximum of 490 years for those convictions, all of which
include gun specifications.

Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye must rule on 12 counts of illegally possessing a weapon and
dozens of repeat-violent-offender specifications, which could add decades to the prison term. The
judge hasn’t set a sentencing date.

Smith, who has two previous robbery convictions, rejected a plea offer before the trial that
would have meant a 27-year sentence.

The jury acquitted him of 27 counts involving five robberies.

He was convicted of robbing: Golden Corral, 4750 E. Main St., on Feb. 26 and July 12; Chipotle,
6316 Tussing Rd., on March 7; Bob Evans, 50 Reynoldsburg-New Albany Rd. N., on April 4; Logan’s
Steakhouse, 3969 Morse Crossing, on April 23; McDonald’s, 3554 S. High St., on May 7; Bob Evans,
6085 Gender Rd., on May 16; Applebee’s, 2755 Brice Rd., on May 30; Texas Road House, 8440 Lyra Dr.
in Delaware County, on June 3; Chipotle, 1960 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., on June 12; Chipotle, 1851
Morse Rd., on June 26; and Red Robin, 3977 Morse Crossing, on July 12.

Assistant Prosecutors Jeff Zezech and David Zeyen stressed the similarities of the robberies,
nine of which were captured on surveillance video. They also presented cellphone records that put
Smith in the vicinity of 13 of the robberies.

Defense attorney Javier Armengau focused on the wide variety of descriptions that victims gave
of the gunman and questioned the methods used by police to compile the cellphone records.